Big Pharma Lobbying Makes Medicine Far More Expensive
At the behest of the pharmaceutical lobby — and after millions in political donations — Republican lawmakers have defanged rules that would lower the prices of life-saving medicines, amounting to a more than $8 billion windfall for Big Pharma.
This year, the GOP-dominated Congress handed the pharmaceutical industry a series of legislative victories, ensuring that life-saving medications will be less affordable for the patients that rely on them. (George Frey / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A year after the pharmaceutical industry’s top lobbying group delivered a secret multimillion-dollar donation to congressional Republicans, GOP lawmakers quietly defanged rules lowering the price of life-saving medicines.
Weakening these rules helped turn the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s (PhRMA) $4 million dark-money contribution into an $8 billion windfall for drugmakers, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate.
Records obtained by political watchdog group Issue One show that PhRMA last year gave millions to a Republican-aligned dark money group boosting Republican candidates’ campaigns across the country.
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